La Morfología Comparada: el despertar de la Bella Durmiente

• Main Author: Virginia Abdala
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Asociación Herpetológica Argentina 2015-09-01
• Series: Cuadernos de Herpetología
• Subjects: Comparative Anatomy; History of Science; Naturphilosophie; Morphology
• Online Access: http://ppct.caicyt.gov.ar/index.php/cuadherpetol/article/view/5776/5809

Comparative Morphology: the revival of the Sleeping Beauty. In this work I share my thoughts about of the climax of the Comparative Morphology contemporaneous with the raising of the german Naturphilosophie. I propose that this epistemological perspective arose as a reaction of the intellectuals against the horrible context in which the anatomical data were obtained: death bodies, organ robberies, plus the socioeconomic crisis in that epoch. I relate the decline of the Comparative Morphology to the preponderance of the genetical and ecological research derived from the Evolutive Theory. The revival of the comparative Morphology occurs with the advent of the Evo Devo research program, that poses important questions about morphology, and the mathematical approach of the morphological studies through the Geometrical Morphology and Ecomorphology. I trace a parallel with the Sleeping Beauty story in which someone remains in a suspended dream as with the Morphology, until the scientific community is ready to pay attention to that person, recognizing that much remains to be discovered by studying the morphology of the living beings.